Tag Archives: Science Fiction

Science Fact and Fiction

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Eye of Sauron - Fomalhaut's Debris Ring - NASA Photo

Eye of Sauron – Fomalhaut’s Debris Ring – NASA Photo

Fomalhaut is a bright star that is located 25 light years away in the constellation Pisces Australis, or the Southern Fish. The above picture is a recent image captured with the Hubble [not Hobbit] Space Telescope. It makes this system look uncannily like the Great Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. The ring is composed of dust particles in orbit around the star.

The Obama Administration operates a website, called “We the People”. This website solicits petitions from ordinary citizens, with the promise that the Administration will give a formal response to any petition that garners over 10,000 signatures. One such petition asked the government to “secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.” The following is the humorous response:

This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For
By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

  • The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
  • The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
  • Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

These two independent stories are still both linked with their twin conjunction of science and fiction and the humor that this meeting engenders. Both stories prove the old adage that truth is often stranger than fiction and funnier too. This post may be a bit nerdy, probably too much so for some, to them I can but say, “May the Schwartz be with you”, some day. For those other diehard fans, not willing to submit to the Administration’s edict, I offer this photo link.

Scientists dream about doing great things.
Engineers do them.
– James A. Michener

Fractal Shadows

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Fractal Shadows

Fractal Shadows

This photo shows the fractal hair stylings of Carl and Anne. Their fractal enhanced shadows are projected on to a whiteboard that they face. A camera is embedded in that wall. It photographs them and replays their enhanced selves in movie form. The more you move the wilder it gets.

This exhibit is part of the “Icons of Science Fiction” exhibit at the EMP Museum in Seattle. Carl took us there on our first day in Washington. In addition to interactive exhibits like this one, it also has memorable props from science fiction movies and TV shows. Examples include Captain Kirk’s chair, littered with tribbles, the Terminator’s skull, Chris Reed’s Superman costume and an Imperial Dalek from the Doctor Who TV show. The following is per the exhibit:

Daleks are actually mutant cyborg aliens. Imperial Daleks were the first of their kind able to levitate, thus overcoming one of their main obstacles to galactic domination: stairs.

Anne and Carl Going to Lightspeed

The Sock Nest Monster

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A Snail's Pace

Where do missing socks go? I don’t know how many times that I have gone to fold my laundry and ended up with a single leftover sock. What happened to the other half of the pair? People have theorized that modern washers and dryers rend them down and they become dryer lint. They become de facto sacrifices to the god of washing.

A more fanciful explanation holds that socks are actually the physical manifestation of an intelligent alien life form. They are able to re-energize themselves by siphoning off some of the bio-mechanical power that is expended through walking. Once sufficiently energized the pair will enter the laundry cycle, and somewhere between the washer and dryer, one of the pair will teleport back to the mothership to report. Its mate remains on earth to continue watching and of course be found after laundry. This theory, while really out there, does explain how a once missing sock can mysteriously reappear.

This morning, in our bedroom closet I discovered a colony of truant socks. This nest of missing socks were living at the back of the closet. They were all covered in closet lint. I suspect that this sock colony was actually a sock nest of cannibals. I belive that the so-called closet lint is really the remains of less fortunate socks, socks that thanks to this sock nest monster will never be seen again. Unfortunately, because of the coating of closet lint, I was compelled to drop these fiends into the laundry chute, repeating the cycle.

The regular reader might have noticed that this has been a slow news week here at RegenAxe. Otherwise would I really be going-on about socks, missing or otherwise? Maybe my life has slowed to a snail’s pace, or maybe I’m just suffering from writer’s block. Which ever one it might be, I’m sure that it will pass soon enough and I’ll return to more interesting and exciting blather.

88 MPH

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DeLorean Tail Light

“Wait a minute, Doc. Ah… Are you telling me that you built a time machine… out of a DeLorean?” Marty McFly, from ‘Back to the Future’

II need a personal time machine. “Beam me up, Scotty, I’m late for work”, just isn’t cutting it anymore. Even if I had a transporter, I’d still be late for work. No, I really need a time machine. If I had one, then when the alarm went off at six, I could set my time machine back to four, jump in and get an extra two hours of snooze time. Properly rested now, I get ready for work at my leisure, and then when it’s time to get into the car, I’d jump forward to ten, skipping the morning rush-hour. Arriving at work, I’d jump back to 7:30, because the early bird always catches the worm. As the morning drags on, I’ll jump to lunch. Taking a two-hour lunch-hour is no problem. I could be back at work, before I left.

In the afternoon, I’ll do some actual work. I’ll jump six months into the future, when my project is supposed to be done, get a copy of the finished product, return to the present, and then start doling out bits and pieces at regular intervals. At about three, I’ll jump forward to six and then roam the office, all the while complaining about useless meetings. That would be my Monday. I might take the next day or two off, but I’d be back at work early on Tuesday.

On second thought, why go back to work? With a little prescient investing, I could be on easy street in no time at all. I’ll still go to work on Tuesday, but only to tender my resignation. People will ask, how can you afford to retire? What are you going to do? Won’t you get bored? I’ll use the old retiree saw about doing some traveling. I won’t mention though that I’ll be doing time traveling.

I could jump forward to catch an upcoming blockbuster movie release. I might skip forward from summer to summer, skipping a winter or two. I’ll also look backwards too. I’ll take in some American history, the 1904 Worlds Fair, the Gettysburg Address, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I’d bring my camera of course, and have blog fodder for all time. Branching out, I’d visit ancient Rome and Egypt, except they would still be new then. I might even venture all the way back to see the dinosaurs. I guess that the possibilities are limitless and only time will tell all of the possibilities that I might find.

The alarm goes off. It is six AM. My time machine has still not arrived. I get up and ready myself for work. Today is going to be a bear at work. Maybe my time machine will come today? I certainly hope so, because my transporter is still in the shop, waiting on parts.